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There’s a method to what might otherwise appear to be madness.

People who worked with Steve Ballmer at Microsoft already know this, but it came through for a national audience on “60 Minutes” on Sunday night, as the former Microsoft CEO discussed his ambitions for the L.A. Clippers, and their new arena, and reflected on his career running the Redmond-based tech giant.

The wild cheering that Ballmer does from the baseline, just like the sweaty chanting that he once did on the Microsoft stage, is designed to send a message.

“That’s a guy who really wanted to fire people up, to say, ‘Hey, we love you. We want you to write software for Windows. We will support you. This is a great opportunity for you,” Ballmer told “60 Minutes” correspondent Jon Wertheim. “Now, my expression of that … I look back at it now, it’s a little embarrassing. I personally feed off energy, and it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, by the way. I mean, you know, some people are quieter … but it’s me.”

But the part of the piece that will probably resonate most with his former colleagues is Ballmer’s extreme attention to detail, including the precise number of toilets at the Intuit Dome, the Clippers’ new arena in Inglewood, Calif.

“We have 1,400 of them. I really hate it when people wait in line, waiting in line for toilets,” he said. “I think it stops people from getting back into the game. People get frustrated.”

The piece does a good job of hitting the highlights of Ballmer’s career, and the low points, including his infamous comment about the iPhone shortly after its debut.

Ballmer: I said, that is the most expensive phone in the world, and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard. Gosh darn it. You know, the phone, man, the phone. We should have been in the phone, we should have been a leader in the phone.

Wertheim: What happened with the phone?

Ballmer: There were a couple things. We had a lot of our talented engineers tied up elsewhere. Number two, we thought about it as too much like what we had done with Windows. It didn’t really — wasn’t going to work. We had to have different thinking, earlier on.

He compared the stress of running Microsoft to that of owning an NBA team.

“I grew up with the place,” he said of Microsoft. “I helped shape the place. I knew where all the bodies were buried … or most of the bodies were buried. And, you know, every day it was my butt on the line. So I sweated more at Microsoft. But I don’t worry any less at the Clippers. … I don’t worry about the revenue and the day to day. … Winning! I do worry about winning.”

A “60 Minutes Overtime” video (above) focuses on the Ballmer Group’s philanthropic work. In response to a question about the possibility of buying the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks — currently controlled by the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen — Connie Ballmer delivered the zinger of the night.

“I told him,” she said, “that he and his next wife would have a good time with that.”

Steve Ballmer chimed in, “As Connie likes to say — and I agree with her — we’ve got enough sports.”